United Liberty

In this clip, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer asserts that undocumented workers are beheading people in Arizona.

I imagine that Brewer was actually referencing the horrifying crimes committed by Mexican drug cartels in Mexico:

CUERNAVACA, Mexico — The preferred form of cruelty by drug cartel henchmen is to capture enemies and behead them, a once-shocking act that has now become numbingly routine.

Since March 22, authorities have come across four separate grisly scenes of beheaded bodies, in one case with several heads placed neatly in a row.

Additionally, the foreign policy journal Stratfor goes in depth on this grisly phenomenon of Mexico’s drug cartels effectively adopting the playbook of Al Qaeda.

Brewer’s comments reveal that she is confused about what is going on and that actions by Mexican criminals in Mexico appears to have achieved synergy in her mind with the actions of undocumented workers. Take that and interpret it however you want.

Brewer is revealing what I think is an important element in the passing of Arizona’s harsh SB1070. The drug violence not too far from the border heightens the perception of danger, even if it’s all a mirage:

NOGALES, Ariz. - Assistant Police Chief Roy Bermudez shakes his head and smiles when he hears politicians and pundits declaring that Mexican cartel violence is overrunning his Arizona border town.

“We have not, thank God, witnessed any spillover violence from Mexico,” Bermudez says emphatically. “You can look at the crime stats. I think Nogales, Arizona, is one of the safest places to live in all of America.”

FBI Uniform Crime Reports and statistics provided by police agencies, in fact, show that the crime rates in Nogales, Douglas, Yuma and other Arizona border towns have remained essentially flat for the past decade, even as drug-related violence has spiraled out of control on the other side of the international line. Statewide, rates of violent crime also are down.

There’s no more danger from undocumented workers than from anyone else. They didn’t hop over the border to terrorize and murder Americans. If undocumented workers really bother you, try working the same job at the same rate and at the same productive capacity as them and then employers might have less reason to hire them.